"Dear Beethoven, you are going to Vienna to fulfil a long-standing wish: Mozart's genius is still in mourning and mourning the death of his disciple (...) By ceaseless dedication, receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands." (Count Waldstein, Beethoven's patron in Bonn - November 1792)

Just as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven were contemporaries of historical upheaval at the end of the 18th century, these three composers alone both founded and revolutionised the world of the string quartet, to the extent that everything composed subsequently has remained linked to them.

 

Haydn : Quartets op.76

Mozart : Quartets dedicated to Haydn

Beethoven : Op.18